For here forlorn and lost I tread : the gender differences between captivity narratives of men and women from 1528 to 1886 /

Abstract

Taking captives was an old and established custom in the Americas long before Columbus arrived in 1492. Nevertheless, the coming of Europeans ushered in a new era in the taking of captives, since the Native Americans could use the colonists as slaves, for ransom, and for adoption, to replace their dead. The prospect of captivity placed an additional burden of fear on an already difficult life for the European colonists. Indians captured both men and women. However, because of the different roles men and women played in their society, the circumstances of their capture and captivity differed, based on their gender. Women, normally confined to the home and care of the children, were usually captured with their children, and fear for them placed an additional burden on the mothers. Men, nearly always kidnapped while hunting, farming, or soldiering, typically only had themselves to worry about. Men and women also dealt with the actual captivity and its aftermath differently. Men, without their families involved, found it easier to escape from the Indians. Women, however, rarely escaped unless or until their children were all dead. After their release, men publicly profited from their experiences, while women did not. The captivity narrative itself changed over time, depending on the audience and the mood of the times. Women moved from being stoic, Puritan women, through the Amazon stage of the American Revolution, to the Victorian Age and its vision of women as delicate and frail. The narratives can tell scholars much about a past way of life, and how men and women were viewed through the centuries